Introduction to chapter 3 X-tra

News and objectives in chapter 1-3X

4 verbal stems (henceforward V) and 4 inflectional endings. Together they will produce 8 verbs and hundreds of sentences when combined with the rest of today's lesson and what you learned in chapter 2.

You will

1. continue training the skill you cannot be without namely the two-sided ability to perceive surface words and at the same time to produce words out of abstract bits and pieces underlying the surface words you hear
2. understand the wordforms you know by now in spite of the fact that they might sound differently because of altered context
3. form a few simple sentences

Lexical material you need to know to manage today's exercises

5 frequent first names

• Nuka (unisex)
• Arnannguaq- (girl's name)
• Malik+ (boy's name)
• Aputsiaq- (boy's name)
• Aviaaja (girl's name)

A few surnames

• Egede
• Olsen
• Rosing

A few titles and institutions

• Pisiffik+
• Ilisimatusarfik+ = Greenland's University
• Royal Greenland (the Self-Government run fishing industry)
• Naalakkersuisut:Naalakkersuisoq- = Government of Greenland
• Nunatta Atuagaateqarfia = Central Library of Greenland
• Katuaq- (the culture house in Nuuk)

Four verbal stems

Note that verbal stems are ungrammatical without proper inflectional endings

• aallar{} to leave, to depart
• ilinniartip{} to teach (object)
• naapip{} to meet (object)
• tikip{} to come, to arrive

One personal pronoun

• ilissi = you (plural)

Noun endings

• Lok = {mi} or {ni} (case lokalis "in/on-case". mi-variety after uninflected words and ni-variety after words already inflected
• Abs: Absolutive case is the basic shape of the noun. So once you acquired nouns like Qaqortoq or pizza you also learned that they are in the absolutive case (and normally in the singular). Do not waste too much energy on Abs at the moment but make sure not to get confused when Abs is mentioned for the first time (in exercise 1-3.11X)

Four inflectional endings

• (Ind 1Sg) = {punga} (indicative mood 1. person singular = I verb)
• (Ind 3Sg) = {poq} (indicative mood 3. person singular = he/she/it verbs)
• (Ind 1Sg 3SgO) = {para} (indicative mood 1. person singular with 3. person singular object = I verb him/her/it)
• (Ind 1Sg 2PlO) = {passi} (indicative mood 1. person singular with 2. person plural object = I verb you)

A too often seen communication crash

Ilissi Maniitsumi ilinniartippassi and Aputsiaq Pisiffimmi naapippara are randomly picked sentences from reception exercise 3.10X. They mean “I taught you in Maniitsoq” and “I met Aputsiaq in Pisiffik” respectively. Many beginners (most?) have problems letting go of the mistaken idea that “*You do something” in the first sentence and that “*Aputsiaq does something” in the latter and therefore too late or never reach the proper understanding that it is “I” who do something in both sentences. In English we understand from left to right starting with our need and expectation to first of all get information about the actor/subject in the sentence. Therefore we intuitively designate the first noun we come across as subject.

Greenlandic does not work like this. On the contrary must perception of Greenlandic start with the main verb one typically find as the last word in a sentence. In the main verb you will find all the needed and unavoidable information for correct reception: ilinniartippassi = ilinniartip+(Ind 1Sg 2PlO) and naapippara = naapip+(Ind 1Sg 3SgO) that is “I teach/taught you” and “I meet/met him”.

So if you maintain that Greenlandic must be understood from right to left you are not entirely wrong.

What you need to know about processes and changes (phonology)

Adding to your knowledge

• Nominal stems apart from loanwords can only end in a vowel or /k/ or /p/ or /q/ or /t/. In order to adapt loanwords ending in consonants others than the mentioned to take the bits and pieces needed (inflectional endings and derivational morphemes) an /i/ is added to Danish loanwords before further word formation. Hence Rosing+Abl (= from Rosing) will be Rosingimit. Loanwords from English can be adapted the same way but are often formed with a hyphen instead like Royal Greenland+Trm (= to Royal Greenland) will be Royal Greenland-imut.
• The verbal endings are not entirely freely applicable. The two endings that mark the object can only be combined with stems that reasonably can be used with objects like to teach him and to meet him. We call such stems transitive verbs. Vice versa stems like depart and arrive come with no object. We call such verbal stems intransitive verbs. That is why our 4 stems + 4 endings do not form 16 wordforms only 8.
• Note that /e/ does not turn /i/ and /o/ not /u/ in proper nouns like Egede vs. Egedemut. This is a purely orthographical standard only applicable to proper nouns. Everywhere else /e/ and /o/ will turn /i/ and /u/ unless followed by /q/ or /r/.

Brushing up chapter 2

• p-stem nouns (marked with -) drop the final consonant before most endings whereas up-stem nouns retain their final consonants before most endings. *Aputsiaq-mut ➔ Aputsiamut whereas *Malik+mut ➔ *Malikmut ➔ Malimmut
• /u/ is spelled -o- before /q/ and /r/ and there cannot be an -o- if not followed by /q/ or /r/. Qaqortoq but Qaqortoq-mut ➔ Qaqortumut
• Whenever two consonants meet the first one assimilates to the second one. This process though, is only partial with /q/ before any consonant but /q/: Aasiak+nut ➔ Aasiannut, but Qeqertarsuaq+mut ➔ Qeqertarsuarmut
• Use the m-varieties of case terminalis (Trm) and ablative (Abl) with baseforms and the n-varieties after wordforms inflected for number and possessor's person and number: Nukamut but Sisimiunut and Nunatta Atuagaateqarfianut